Evaluating dose delivered of a behavioral intervention for childhood obesity prevention: a secondary analysis

Abstract

Abstract Background Current recommendations for intensive behavioral interventions for childhood obesity treatment do not account for variable participant attendance, optimal duration of the intervention, mode of delivery (phone vs. face-to-face), or address obesity prevention among young children. A secondary analysis of an active one-year behavioral intervention for childhood obesity prevention was conducted to test how “dose delivered” was associated with body mass index z-score (BMI-Z) across 3 years of follow-up. Methods Parent-child pairs were eligible if they qualified for government assistance and spoke English or Spanish. Children were between three and 5 years old and were at risk for but not yet obese (BMI percentiles ≥50th and 6) and maintenance calls (> 8) were predicted to have lower BMI-Z. Sustained impacts were not statistically significant at 2- or 3-year follow-up. Conclusions In a behavioral intervention for childhood obesity prevention, the combination of a modest dose of face-to-face sessions (> 6 h over 3 months) with sustained maintenance calls (> 8 calls over 9 months) was associated with improved BMI-Z at 1-year for underserved preschool aged children, but sustained impacts were not statistically significant at 2 or 3 year follow-up. Clinical trial registration The trial was registered on ClinicalTrials.gov ( NCT01316653 ) on March 16, 2011, which was prior to participant enrollment.

Keywords

• Childhood obesity
• Behavioral interventions
• Dose intensity